Process of making artificial-silk thread.



FFlCE.

PATENT JULES DUQUESNOY, or PARIS, FRANCE.

PROCESS OF MAKING ARTIFICIAL-SILK THREAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 663,739 dated December 11, 1900.

Application filed May 31, 1900. Serial No. 18,585. (No specimens.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, J ULES DUouEsNoY, engineer, of 14 Avenue Klber, in the city of 7 Paris, Republic of France, have invented a new or Improved Process of Making Artificial- -Silk Thread, of which the followingis a full,

clear, and exact description.

The object of the present invention is to produce a new product by means of which a textile fabric may be artificially obtained which has the appearance and the properties of natural silk.

The mode of preparation of the material intended to be converted into thread by any convenien t mechanical means is substantially as follows: First, nitrocellulose is prepared by treating cotton or other cellulose material with a mixture of azotic, nitric, and sulfuric acids by the manufacturing process used for the production of pyroXylin, known under the name of nitro-cotton, obtained at a low temperature. Second, this nitrocellulose is then dissolved in a mixture of acetone, acetic acid, and amyl alcohol. The proportions employed may vary; but those which I prefer are equal volumes of the three components. An intimate mixture of these three substances after having been suitably filtered has the appearance of limpid and colorless collodion. This substance is expressed from a capillary orifice and instantly solidifies on contact with the external atmosphere, by reason of the evaporation of the acetone and forms a thread which can be drawn and wound Without necessitating the passing of it through coagulating or similar baths. This filament, which is comparable in its fineness, brilliancy, and transparency to that yielded by the cocoon of the silkworm, difiers from it by its excessive combustibility due to the presence of the nitrocellulose, and this has to be remedied to render it safe for the same uses as natural silk. To this end I employ certain reducing agents-such as hydrosulfurous acid, ammonium sulhydrate, &c.in order to act upon the nitrocellulose, which is thereby reduced to totally or partially denitrated cellulose, according to the length of the reaction. The material thus obtained, which I have just described, maybe used as a pellicle.

I claim- 1. The herein-described process of producing artificial silk, which consists in dissolving nitrocellulose or guncotton in a solvent composed of acetone, acetic acid, and an alcohol in about equal parts, and expressing the resulting solution from a capillary orifice.

2. In the herein-described process of making artificial silk, the method of dissolving nitrocellulose which consists in subjecting the said nitrocellulose to the action of a solvent composed of acetone, acetic acid, and an alcohol.

3. In the herein-described process of making artificial silk, the method of treating guncotton, which consists in subjecting the said guncotton to the action of asolvent composed of equal parts of acetone, acetic acid, and amyl alcohol.

The foregoing specification of my new or improved product or artificial silk suitable for the production of thread signed by me this 18th day of May, 1900.

J ULES DUQUESNOY.

Witnesses:

EDWARD P. MAOLEAN, MAURICE H. PIGNETZ. 

